Simplified fabrication of frequency selective surface-based microwave and millimeter-wave devices using fiber laser technology

Frequency-selective surfaces (FSSs) have been manufactured using a range of techniques, including printed circuit board (PCB) technology, chemical etching, inkjet printing, and photolithography. In this article, a fiber laser marking machine is used for the first time to fabricate the FSS designed to operate within the microwave and millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency spectrum. To achieve this, three FSS designs are considered, analyzed through simulation and fabricated using fiber laser technology. The first analyzed design is an FSS-based absorber composed of two different geometric structures: simple patches and crosses. The designed patch and cross absorbers exhibit a narrowband response at 35.2 GHz and 35.3 GHz, achieving excellent absorption values of 97 % and 99.8 %, respectively. The second design under examination consists of a simple FSS with dipole resonators, engineered to function as a polarization converter. The proposed polarization conversion metasurface (PCM) composed of simple 45∘ rotated dipole resonators, is grown on a plastic substrate covered with aluminum metal. It effectively achieves cross-polarization conversion across a broad operating frequency range spanning from 21.8 to 42.5 GHz. Lastly, a simple and cost-effective Fabry–Perot/leaky-wave antenna (FPA/LWA) incorporating a complementary FSS is presented. The proposed FPA/LWA operates in the frequency range of 19–22 GHz with a realized gain of 13 dBi and an impedance matching below −10 dB. Furthermore, the simulated performance of the designed FSS has been validated through experimental measurements. This study highlights the effectiveness of fiber laser technology in fabricating FSS-based devices and considerably reduces waste during the manufacturing phase. Compared to conventional methods, the proposed fiber laser method proves to be an effective, fast, and simplistic fabrication method for producing FSS and metasurface-based devices. The promising results suggest that this technique can be widely adopted in the development of advanced microwave and mm-wave components for next-generation wireless communication systems and sensing applications.